History

Growing up playing AD&D and reading fantasy books like The DragonLance Series, The Gor Books, and Conan, I began writing stories in the 1980s and then completed my first book, which is what really turned me on to storytelling. By 1991, TSR, Inc., the makers of AD&D games, asked me to draft a novel outline for their new series, The Harpers, but rejected the book for having a similar theme to their unpublished Elfshadow book.

That same year, I took my world building more seriously and would spend much of the 1990s doing this when unable to write for different reasons. The first of those was college, after which I began writing The Tales of Llurien only to lose my typing ability to a tendonitis injury. For the next couple years, I was unable to write stories with a dictation program I’d begun using, but I could work on my main world and story outlines, so I did.

Starting in 1999, I authored Of Hauntings and Hunting(For Once & Ever More, #1), which proved too long for traditional publishers to consider, so I reluctantly shelved book two. By 2003 my music career took precedence until 2006, when I wrote The Dragon Gate (Champions Series, #1). Unable to find a publisher, I shelved the series.

From 2008-2012, I wrote a long non-fiction book and five of The Tales of Llurien. Bewildering Stories also published “The Insultalon” story in 2009. By early 2013, I’d decided to become an indie author so I can know my books will be released. This involved a lot of research and the formation of Evermore Press, my publishing company. I also wrote and published three novels in another genre under a pseudonym, to gain practical experience with releasing and promoting books.

Since then I’ve written another six of The Tales of Llurien (three earning placement in the Writers of the Future contest), worked on For Once & Ever More and The Champions Series, and resumed world building more heavily. The latter resulted in a series of blogs that have become the heart of The Art of World Building, a non-fiction guide to creating settings.

I published The Ever Fiend (Talon Stormbringer) in 2016 and followed it up with the first two volumes in The Art of World Building series in 2017, including a blog, podcast, and audio books; the final volume will be released by 2019 with a return to fiction following shortly after.